Eggplant Parmesan Redux: Results December 11, 2007

Tonight I made eggplant parmesan (I posted the recipe yesterday).

Modifications:

I hadn’t soaked my flour so I omitted that. And I forgot to let let the salted eggplant slices sit for an hour so they could weep. I let them sit for half an hour (it was getting late and Seth wanted his dinner).

Also, I fried the eggplant in bacon grease — leftover from lunch (I made bacon, lettuce & tomato sandwiches). There wasn’t quite enough bacon grease in the cast iron skillet so I added some coconut oil.

Anyway, it turned out great. Seth is not shy about telling me about how he really feels about the food I make. He doesn’t hesitate to say something sucks. But he said several times that he loved it.

This was actually the first time I ever made eggplant parmesan, and considering all the changes I made, I’m honestly surprised that it worked.

I will admit that personally I found the eggplant a tad soggy. I think the salting/weeping for a minimum of one hour is necessary. Also, I think the flour would have really made a difference. I had a hard time making the breadcrumbs stick to the eggplant. The flour would have helped that, and would have made it a bit crispier.

I served with a fresh salad of lettuce (red leaf and green leaf) and chopped heirloom tomato, fennel and cucumber, dressed with apple cider vinaigrette. The salad was good but I think adding a little avocado and kalamata olives would have made it even better.